No proof GMA pocketed PCSO funds, says witness

MANILA, Philippines - There is no proof that detained former President and now Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had pocketed part of confidential and intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) from 2008 to 2010, a prosecution witness in the plunder case against her said yesterday.

Aleta Tolentino, currently a PCSO board member, also said in her cross-examination that there is no money trail to link Arroyo’s co-accused to misuse of PCSO funds.

“We don’t know where the money is. We don’t know where it is,” she told the anti-graft court’s First Division during the continuation of the hearings on petition for bail sought by Arroyo, former PCSO chairman Sergio Valencia, former budget officer Benito Aguas, and former board member Manuel Morato.

“We don’t know where the money went, who saved it,” Tolentino said in response to a question from Associate Justice Rodolfo Ponferrada on what evidence they have to show that the respondents in the case acquired ill-gotten wealth.

She said that what the PCSO investigation found were cash disbursements to Valencia and to former PCSO general manager Rosario Uriarte.

The other respondents in the P365.9-million plunder case were board members Raymundo Roquero, Jose Taruc V, and Fatima Valdes, former Commission on Audit (COA) chairman Reynaldo Villar, and auditor Nilda Plaras.

Raul Lambino, Arroyo’s legal spokesman, said in a statement after the hearing that Tolentino’s testimony proved that the prosecution has no evidence to pin down the former president for plunder.

He said Tolentino’s testimony was consistent with the findings of the first panel of Ombudsman investigators who evaluated the case.

In the copy of the first resolution submitted by Uriarte to the Sandiganbayan, the panel headed by Deputy Special Prosecutor Cornelio Somido recommended the downgrading of the plunder charge against Arroyo to mere graft.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales junked the first resolution and created another panel which eventually filed the plunder case against Arroyo and the other officials. 

“What was merely established in the record was that respondent Uriarte received the check and the money representing the additional CIFs as requested, approved by respondent GMA and confirmed by the respondent Board of Directors,” the first resolution stated.